Four years after washout, a trail into the Ventana Wilderness has a reroute — but no easement.

During the deluge that battered the Central Coast in 2019, a crucial access point into the Big Sur backcountry was lost: A trail around the western border of Los Padres Reservoir, and ultimately connected to the Carmel River Trail, partially slid out.

The timeline for when it would get repaired was an open question – it was owned by California American Water, whose local employees are primarily focused on keeping the water system running, and on fighting off a public buyout by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District.

Enter the nonprofit Ventana Wilderness Alliance, which recruited a team of volunteer wilderness rangers to do all the legwork to establish a rerouted trail that would bypass the slide and finish at the same destination. The amount of work those volunteers did – and the scope of the activities they carried out – is nothing short of impressive. They worked with the County Planning Department to secure grading permits (it helped that some of the volunteers, Aengus Jeffers and Laura Lawrence, are land-use attorneys). They also included ecologist Nikki Nedeff and archaeologist Su Morley, who also moved that process along, while Bellinda Taluban helped with engineering and Aaron Cole assisted with mapping.

The trail is now done, but not yet open to the public, because the easement for the property – originally granted in 1949 to the U.S. government – must still be updated. To that end, Cal Am is working with the U.S. Forest Service. Cal Am spokesperson Josh Stratton writes via email that the two entities “anticipate executing the easement agreement soon,” after which the trail would be open to the public and a vital access point to the backcountry restored.

Forest Service spokesperson Michael Papa writes via email that a new easement is required because the old 15-foot right-of-way path no longer exists. VWA Executive Director Mike Chamberlain declined to comment until the easement process plays out.